Our friends across the pond (the Brits) get a sweet HD DVD player deal that just got sweeter. The eagerly awaited, low cost Venturer SHD7001 High Definition (HD) DVD player from Venturer will not only offer an add on package worth around £50.00 (two HD DVDs; Hulk and Troy, and a free HDMI cable) it will also now include a voucher that enables customers to redeem 5 more free HD DVDs courtesy of the European HD DVD Promotional Group. That's right, for £50.00 you get a total of 7 HD DVDs and a free HDMI cable. Personally, I think all HD DVD players should come with a HDMI cable anyway. Still, for £50 which gives you 7 HD DVDs, that's a pretty good deal.
Customers have until January 31st 2008 to use their redemption voucher to select 5 of their favorite titles for free from a list of HD DVDs. No additional charges will be made as postage and packaging will also be completely free.
The SHD7001 will initially be available to buy in the UK exclusively from QVC TV Home Shopping Channel QVC, which is available on Sky Digital channel 630, Freeview channel 16 and Virgin TV channel 740. The product will become available from December 29th, when it will be the featured product of the day (Today's Special Value). What? 4 days after Christmas? Talk about missing a golden opportunity to sell this like hot cakes. Not a very smart marketing move to wait until after the largest shopping holiday of the year is over with.
Further, the price of the SHD7001 remains undisclosed until its official launch on QVC on December 29th. So for all I know they're going to sell this thing for $500, which wouldn't make it much of a deal after all.
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The QuickCam Orbit AF also has a 'trick' up it's sleeve. Not only can it sit low in its base, but it also comes with a 9" long stem that lets you mount the camera up high. This way you can just place the Orbit AF on your desk and the camera is at almost eye level. More like chest level with most desks, but the optics move anyway, so if you are a really tall person, the motorizing tracking system will move the camera lens up. Or you could place the camera stand on top of a book or something if you wanted it a bit higher, though that defeats the purpose of the included 9" stem. (see the images of the Orbit AF to the right) I should mention that it's very easy to detach the camera from the stem and the stem from the base if you want to attach the camera down low directly onto the base. You just pop it off and pop it in. The connector looks almost identical to a mini-USB connector. 
In any event, I did some testing of the Orbit AF to see how it compares with other webcams I've reviewed over the years. For my first test I launched the QuickCam software, which was running in the System Tray. I launched the QuickCapture software from the easy to use toolbar. From here I changed the image size to the maximum - 8 megapixels. The video quality was amazing! Although not a true "8 megapixels" since the camera lens is 2MP optical, the digital software enhancement to 8MP was pretty remarkable. While in 8MP "quick capture" mode, I was able to snap a photo. I did notice however that the Record Video button was greyed out. - so no 8MP video captures! I expected as much, since that would create massive video files that would be all but unusable unless compressed. I had to switch the resolution down to 2MP before the Record Video option became available. Other resolutions include 320x240, 640x480 (VGA), 960x720 (HD), 1.3MP, 3MP, and 4MP. If you are curious about the video quality when recording at the maximum 2MP setting, 
You can also apply video effects and avatars to the video image allowing you to personalize your conversations with hundreds of avatars and face accessories that mirror your expressions and motion. You can also use filters to add photographic effects such as fisheye, '50s Movie Reel, neonize, and more. After calibrating to your face, the avatar image can track your head, eye, and mouth movements. Even cooler, the rendered video image can be sent to any of your video conferencing applications, such as Skype, MSN Messenger, AIM, 
The coolest feature of the Logitech Orbit AF camera is undoubtedly the motorized motion tracking feature, which tracks you as you move about. The image to the right shows the QuickCam settings including the 'follow me' feature turned on. From here you can also move the camera up/down or left/right with the click of a mouse. I tested the motion tracking and it worked pretty well. I got up from my chair and moved about the room and it followed me wherever I went. It occasionally lost track of where I was if I moved too fast, but if I went back into frame, it got back in sync. All-in-all this feature worked quite nicely and is a nice feature to have so you aren't chained to your desk when having a video call with a friend, family member, etc.
For my next test, it was time to test a dual-core to dual-core Skype video call. I called Rich Tehrani on his dual-core laptop. I should mention that I was testing all of my video calls using the high-end Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF webcam (image top-right), which features a Carl Zeiss optics, integrated microphone, a cool motorized tracking that automatically follows your every move, premium autofocus, a true 2-megapixel sensor, with up to 8-megapixel photos (enhanced), 960 by 720 pixels, and RightLight 2 Technology which adjusts intelligently to produce true-to-life clear images in dim or poor backlight settings. It a very cool webcam and I plan on reviewing the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF itself very soon. Here is a Skype HQ call I made to Rich Tehrani. Note the Skype HQ Video message in black. It goes away after a few seconds.
Discovered a cool new gadget this weekend - a digital photo Christmas ornament, which was advertised in a 
AT&T U-verse customers
It's too bad 
Ironic that I just blogged about Logitech and 
I should also mention that the $19.99/month also gives you 500 free U.S. and Canada telephone calling minutes to any landline or mobile phone, so there is certainly a lot of value in this offering.